Imagine you were walking through the mall this past weekend, and you noticed one of those mall kiosks with the following sign:

Bob’s Certified Driver’s Licenses

Too young to drive? No Problem. State License revoked? Get back on the road!

My Licenses Get YOU back on the road TODAY

You go up to the guy manning the Kiosk and ask who Bob is.

He says, “I’m Bob.”

“So…. are these Fake IDs?” you ask.

“No,” he replies. “They are real IDs. They are real Driver’s Licenses, but instead of being issued by the state, they are issued by me.”

“But wait,” you say. “You cannot just hand out driver’s licenses to anyone. People have to learn how to drive! What if you are giving licenses to people who had theirs taken away for drunk driving? This is dangerous! You are selling unauthorized licenses, and people are going to get killed!”

As you talk further, you find out he is a bit disgruntled with the way the state controls the Driver’s Licenses, and wants to create a new way for more people to drive. At one point, you think this is just some sort of get-rich-quick scam of his, and you ask how much he is charging for these “licenses” but he says they are free. He doesn’t charge a dime. You ask if the State Police recognize his licenses, and he says, “No yet. But eventually we will create our own Police Force that will. Until then, you might get a few tickets for driving without a license.”

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In my Commentary on Luke 6:1-5, I wrote the following about the grain offering that was brought into the Temple at that time of year:

Two things are unique about this offering.

First, it is the only offering that is presented to the Lord with leaven. Leaven, or yeast, is always a symbol for sin in Scripture, and so no other offering ever contained leaven.

Second, this was the only offering that was prepared and shaped by the hands of men. Every other time, when grain or an animal was brought into the temple as an offering, it was offered just as it was. Yes, the grain might be roasted over a fire, and the animal would be slaughtered before it too was roasted, burned, or boiled, but no other actions of forming, shaping, or molding the offerings were to be performed. Only the two loaves on the Feast of Weeks were formed in such a way.

What I did not address is the purpose, symbolism, and application of this unique offering. Let me attempt to do so here.

The Purpose of this Offering

There are multiple purposes for the various sacrifices and offerings that were given to God in the Temple. This offering was to thank God for the first portion of the harvest, and show trust in Him for the remainder. In agrarian societies, bad weather or invaders could quickly ruin your harvest, and so many would quickly store and save the first portion of the harvest, and then later, as the harvest became more bountiful, give of the bounty to whatever deity they worshiped.

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There is a new church planter in the town where I live. I met him the other day and asked about how his church is going. You will never believe what he told me.

He has about a dozen people so far in his “core group.” One is a member of the Black Panthers. Another is the member of the Klu Klux Klan. And somehow, they both worship together.

But that is only the beginning. One guy is a mega-wealthy Wall Street Banker democrat, and another is a out of work construction laborer who is a rising star in the Tea Party movement. Somehow, they both worship together.

They have a girl who is almost certainly a cocaine-using prostitute, and they also have a police officer. Somehow, they both worship together.

They have a gay couple and a Marine. Somehow, they worship God together.

One type of person they do not have is someone who has been involved in church before in any significant way (other than the church planter himself).

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I see a rising tide of people today who want to use the Jewishness of Jesus to defend their own legalistic requirements of observing the Jewish law. The logic goes like this:

1. Jesus was Jewish.
2. If we are followers of Jesus, we should act like Jews too.
3. Jews (and Jesus) obeyed the law, and so should we.

But no Jewish person would ever tell you this, including Jesus and Paul. Neither one said anything of the sort in Scripture.

Even today, Jews do not teach that in order to please God, a Gentile must convert to Judaism and follow the Jewish Law.

I have many Jewish friends, and when I have asked what God’s requirements are for people who are non-Jewish, not a single one has ever said that God wants non-Jews to follow the Jewish laws. Why not? Because Jewish laws are for Jewish people. If you are not Jewish, then you do not need to obey Jewish laws. And if you are not Jewish, it is insane to want to become Jewish because then you would have to obey the Jewish laws.

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